Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Matt Puffenbarger
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: OP/ED
In today's society, nothing is more important than social status. The corporations, companies and conglomerates of the world are willing to do anything within their power to convince us to purchase things that we do not need, want and often cannot afford.
They make us believe we can be a better, more upstanding member of society with the purchase of these useless things; essentially, this focus on materialism makes us slaves to our desire to advance our social status.
We have been programmed to consume without thought since birth. We are conditioned to purchase the latest and greatest product that is released.
Big business does not care about what the individual or society as a whole needs; for decades they have indoctrinated Americans to mindlessly purchase things only to line their pockets with the money from our na've society. They get their corporate hooks in us early, and when we grow up we enter into a never ending pursuit of meaninglessness. We work tirelessly and endlessly at jobs we hate so we can purchase items that we do not need.
For decades, Cadillac was a symbol of luxury and prestige, so in turn, if you were wealthy enough to own a Cadillac, you were assumed to be upper class. People spend their whole lives trying to earn enough money to buy things to make them look better.
I may not be an overly religious man, but the Ten Commandments generally seem like a decent guide to life. However, our entire economic system is based on violating Commandment number ten, "Thou shall not covet your neighbor's goods." When our neighbor purchases something new or fancy, we become consumed with outdoing them by purchasing something bigger, better, and more expensive. Our society has taught us that the things we own define who we are, and our modified, materialistic human nature dictates that we have to out-perform and out-do our competition to be of elite status.
We are letting the things that we own, own us, all with little or no resistance. We buy, sell, and throw out things as quickly as the wind blows through the dumps, where our outdated and old items go to die. We have traded family, community, and spirituality in for inanimate things such as jet skis and cell phones.
Some of us, myself included, like to think that we are above being a sheep in the herd.The truth, however, is that almost all of us suffer from consumeristic or materialistic impulses.
It is not entirely our fault. This is how society has trained us: we all want to be like Mike and drive a luxury automobile and keep up with the Jones'. The only way to stop the vicious cycle is to cut back on our consumption and regain an interest in the little things in life, something easier said than done.
They make us believe we can be a better, more upstanding member of society with the purchase of these useless things; essentially, this focus on materialism makes us slaves to our desire to advance our social status.
We have been programmed to consume without thought since birth. We are conditioned to purchase the latest and greatest product that is released.
Big business does not care about what the individual or society as a whole needs; for decades they have indoctrinated Americans to mindlessly purchase things only to line their pockets with the money from our na've society. They get their corporate hooks in us early, and when we grow up we enter into a never ending pursuit of meaninglessness. We work tirelessly and endlessly at jobs we hate so we can purchase items that we do not need.
For decades, Cadillac was a symbol of luxury and prestige, so in turn, if you were wealthy enough to own a Cadillac, you were assumed to be upper class. People spend their whole lives trying to earn enough money to buy things to make them look better.
I may not be an overly religious man, but the Ten Commandments generally seem like a decent guide to life. However, our entire economic system is based on violating Commandment number ten, "Thou shall not covet your neighbor's goods." When our neighbor purchases something new or fancy, we become consumed with outdoing them by purchasing something bigger, better, and more expensive. Our society has taught us that the things we own define who we are, and our modified, materialistic human nature dictates that we have to out-perform and out-do our competition to be of elite status.
We are letting the things that we own, own us, all with little or no resistance. We buy, sell, and throw out things as quickly as the wind blows through the dumps, where our outdated and old items go to die. We have traded family, community, and spirituality in for inanimate things such as jet skis and cell phones.
Some of us, myself included, like to think that we are above being a sheep in the herd.The truth, however, is that almost all of us suffer from consumeristic or materialistic impulses.
It is not entirely our fault. This is how society has trained us: we all want to be like Mike and drive a luxury automobile and keep up with the Jones'. The only way to stop the vicious cycle is to cut back on our consumption and regain an interest in the little things in life, something easier said than done.
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